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Anthropic Reasoning
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 The
Anthropic Cosmological Principle by John D. Barrow, Frank J.
Tipler
Ever since Copernicus, scientists have continually
adjusted their view of human nature, moving it further and further from
its ancient position at the center of Creation. But in recent years, a
startling new concept has evolved that places it more firmly than ever
in a special position. Known as the Anthropic Cosmological Principle,
this collection of ideas holds that the existence of intelligent
observers determines the fundamental structure of the Universe. In its
most radical version, the Anthropic Principle asserts that
"intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the
Universe, and once it comes into existence, it will never die out."
This wide-ranging and detailed book explores the many
ramifications of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, covering the
whole spectrum of human inquiry from Aristotle to Z bosons. Bringing a
unique combination of skills and knowledge to the subject, John D.
Barrow and Frank J. Tipler--two of the world's leading
cosmologists--cover the definition and nature of life, the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence, and the interpretation of the quantum
theory in relation to the existence of observers. The book will be of
vital interest to philosophers, theologians, mathematicians, scientists,
and historians, as well as to anyone concerned with the connection
between the vastness of the universe of stars and galaxies and the
existence of life within it on a small planet out in the suburbs of the
Milky Way.
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Nick Bostrom
Research papers, overviews, and other resources for
the philosophy of cosmology, anthropic reasoning, observational
selection effects, and the philosophy of evolution theory.
This site
includes an extensive and up-to-date Bibliography.
Excerpt:
Rarely does
philosophy produce empirical predictions. The Doomsday argument is an
important exception. From seemingly trivial premises it seeks to show
that the risk that humankind will go extinct soon has been
systematically underestimated. Nearly everybody's first reaction is that
there must be something wrong with such an argument. Yet despite being
subjected to intense scrutiny by a growing number of philosophers, no
simple flaw in the argument has been identified...
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by Glen T. McDavid
Excerpt:
The anthropic cosmological principle asserts that the
laws, constants and basic structure of the universe are not completely
arbitrary. Instead they are constrained by the requirement that they
must allow for the existence of intelligent observers, ourselves...
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We may occupy a preferred place or preferred time in
the Universe (we may also occupy a preferred universe)
There are several vexing facts about the Universe:
It appears as though we live in a special universe. Some
quantities seem to be highly improbable values, for example, the
flatness of the Universe is disturbing. Several questions are...
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By Daniel Berger
This page is a small collection of links on the
Anthropic Cosmological Principle, which in its simplest form says,
"We're here because we are, so there!"
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By Kevin Sharpe and Jonathan Walgate
Abstract:
The anthropic principle, that the universe exists in
some sense for life, has persisted in recent religious and
scientific thought because it derives from cosmological fact. It has
been unsuccessful in furthering our understanding of the world because
its advocates tend to impose final metaphysical solutions onto what is a
physical problem...
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From DIALOGOS:
An Interactive Journal
of the Sciences, Philosophy, and Religion
Excerpt:
One of the most startling developments to come from
modern physics is that the universe, in some very fundamental way, seems
to have been "designed" or "tuned" to produce life
and consciousness. Actually, what physicists have discovered is that
there are a large number of "coincidences" inherent in the
fundamental laws and constants of nature. Every one of these
coincidences or specific relationships between fundamental physical
parameters is needed, or the evolution of life and consciousness as we
know it could not have happened. The collection of these coincidences is
an undisputed fact, and collectively, have come to be known as the
"Anthropic Principle."
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Ian Hall
There are quite a few constants
in physics which have values that look to have been plucked out of thin
air, seemingly with no reference to anything else. It is interesting to
see how a small change in one or other of them would make life totally
impossible on Earth, or anywhere else in the universe. It almost seems
as though the laws of physics themselves are precisely 'tuned' so as to favor
the appearance of life somewhere...
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By John Leslie
Excerpt:
Reasoning known as the cosmological argument (Burrill
1967; Craig 1979, 1980; Hepburn 1967) tries to justify belief in God by
pointing to the existence of the cosmos, its causal orderliness, and
alleged evidence of its being in some sense designed to include life and
intelligence. [Often the appeal to such evidence is instead called the
argument from design, or the teleological argument.] Some cosmologists
believe, however, that the existence and order of the cosmos can be
accounted for scientifically. Its life-permitting character might
itself, they consider, be explained through its being divided into
multiple domains worth the name of "universes". These could
vary randomly in their features, ours being one of the perhaps very rare
ones in which life had any chance of evolving. As the anthropic
principle reminds us, only the life-permitting universes could give rise
to observers. They should hesitate before concluding that an omnipotent,
omniscient, all-creating person had made their surroundings
life-permitting...
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by Theodore M. Drange
Excerpt:
Let us consider that version of the Argument from
Design which appeals to the so-called "fine-tuning" of the
physical constants of the universe...
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By Joseph Silk
Excerpt:
scientist, although not necessarily the poet or the
theologian, commences his study of the universe by assuming that the
laws of physics which are locally measured in the laboratory have more
general applicability. If experiment proves that this assumption is
wrong, one then proceeds to explore generalizations of local physics. In
this spirit, cosmology, the science of studies of the universe, is
developed by extrapolation of locally verified laws of physics to remote
locations in space and time, which can be probed with modern
astronomical techniques. In a theory of cosmology, simplicity is sought
on sufficiently large scales. The successful theories in physics and
mathematics are invariably the simplest, with the least number of
arbitrary degrees of freedom. Postulating that Titan held up the heavens
(where did he come from? Why didn't he get bored? or sleepy?) requires
many more ad hoc assumptions than the realization that the orbits of the
planets in the gravity field of the sun suffice to stop them falling
onto the earth like so many shooting stars...
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By Victor
J. Stenger
Abstract:
The Anthropic coincidences are widely claimed to
provide evidence for intelligence creation in the universe.
However, neither data nor theory support this conclusion. No basis
exists for assuming that a random universe would not have some kind of
life. Calculations of the properties of universes having different
physical constants than ours indicate that long-lived stars are not
unusual, and thus most universes should have time for complex systems of
some type to evolve. A multi-universe scenario is not ruled out
since no known principle requires that only one universe exist...
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By Nick Bostrom,
Dept. of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of
Economics
Abstract:
John Leslie presents a thought experiment to show that
chances are sometimes observer-relative in a paradoxical way. The
pivotal assumption in his argument – a version of the weak anthropic
principle – is the same as the one used to get the disturbing Doomsday
argument off the ground. I show that Leslie’s thought experiment
trades on the sense/reference ambiguity and is fallacious. I then
describe a related case where chances are observer-relative in an
interesting way. But not in a paradoxical way. The result can be
generalized: At least for a very wide range of cases, the weak anthropic
principle does not give rise to paradoxical observer-relative
chances. This finding could be taken to give new indirect support to the
doomsday argument...
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By Freeman J. Dyson Institute for Advanced Studies,
Princeton New Jersey
Excerpt:
Quantitative estimates are derived for three classes
of phenomena that may occur in an open cosmological model of Friedmann
type. (1) Normal physical processes taking place with very long
time-scales. (2) Biological processes that will result if life adapts
itself to low ambient temperatures according to a postulated scaling
law. (3) Communication by radio between life forms existing in different
parts of the universe. The general conlusion of the analysis is that an
open universe need not evolve into a state of permanent quiescence. Life
and communication can continue for ever, utilizing a finite store of
energy, if the assumed scaling laws are valid...
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By Macauley Peterson
Abstract:
A discussion of the Anthropic Principle and its
relevance to modern cosmology. The Anthropic Principle has given rise to
a resurgence in teleological views concerning the observed
"fine-tuning" of the universe, that permits the existence of
carbon-based life. This paper traces origins of that resurgence and
maintains that the teleological viewpoint is no more valid as a
consequence of the Anthropic Principle than it was before...
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